1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat knitting machine having transferring jacks or upper needle beds disposed above needle beds.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a usual flat knitting machine, a pair of needle beds which contain movable knitting needles are arranged to form an inverted V-shaped form in a side view. In knitting a rib knit fabric by using front and rear knitting needles of this flat knitting machine, it is impossible to decrease stitches at an intermediate portion in a row of stitches.
To solve this problem, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 47-7907 discloses a flat knitting machine, wherein a pair of needles beds, containing movable knitting needles, are arranged to form an inverted V-shaped form in a side view. A transferring jack bed, containing movable jacks in jack grooves, is provided above each needle bed. A stitch to be transferred is transferred from the knitting needle to the transferring jack, and the stitch engaged with the transferring jack is transferred to another knitting needle after the transferring jack engaged with the stitch is moved in a transverse direction.
However, in the transferring jack bed supporting structure of the stitch transferring mechanism of a flat (weft) knitting machine described in the above publication, there is a problem that a central part of the transferring jack bed sags due to its own weight, because the transferring jack is supported at its opposite ends.
To prevent the sagging of a transferring jack bed, the transferring jack bed is reinforced in various ways or, as described in Japanese Examined Patent Application (laid open application for opposition) No. 41-7907, an upper needle bed can be supported by a knitting needle suppressing plate mounted on a lower needle bed. In such case, however, there is a problem that transferring jack bed and the knitting needle suppressing plate must be removed, for example, when replacing a knitting needle of the lower needle bed. This lowers work efficiency.